in Marriage, Parenting, Health, and Faith

Whole30

I feel great! It feels empowering to successfully finish something difficult. My clothes fit better and I feel better. Multiple people told me my face looked thinner, and while weight loss wasn’t my main motivation for doing a Whole30, I am happy it was a side effect!

Was it hard?

Yes and No. Completely changing the way you eat is definitely hard, but having clear rules and boundaries made it easy to stick to the plan. There was no, “should I?” or “I will just have a little..” the answer was just no. Giving up sugar is hard. I think the one thing I might not have done correctly was I occasionally used fruit and homemade Larabars to take the edge off my sugar cravings. I realize that is kind of missing the point, but I only had so much self control left!

Will I continue?

The main thing I miss, as mentioned above, is sugar, and that is also the number one thing I want to continue to cut out of my diet. Aside from the natural sugar in fruit, sugar, especially added sugar, will have no place in my diet on a day to day basis. The exception being special occasions, and the occasional treat.

As for the rest of the off limit foods, I still plan to keep my diet very clean, but my definition of clean does include dairy, legumes, beans, and some whole grains. I actually started another nutritional challenge at my CrossFit box. It is a lot less restrictive than the Whole30 but it lasts for six weeks. My hope is that it will help me transition into allowing the previously off-limit food back into my diet without going crazy!

Bottom-line: Am I glad I did it?

YES! I learned a lot about myself and I discovered a lot of new meals and foods that my family and I all enjoy. I am really proud of myself for sticking to it! I also inspired a few family members to do a Whole30 too! Good luck Mom, Dad, and Taylor! You can do it!

As the end draws near, my mind is bombarded with all the food and treats I want to indulge in on Wednesday when I am finished. To be honest, it is a little discouraging that the cravings have come back in such great force. It is possible, that as I have the freedom to eat again, I might discover that my old favorites do not taste or make me feel the way I remember, and while that does bring hope, would it be wrong to mourn their loss? I love food.

I put off dealing with my health and nutrition for so long because I live to eat. Eating strictly Paleo, 24/7, is not something I am willing to maintain forever, and the opposite, eating anything and everything I love without regard to it’s nutritional value is another extreme that my body cannot survive. The Whole30 has been a my nutritional “training wheels” and starting in October I will be traveling without them.

I have come up with a few possible solutions. Maybe we will eat clean 5-6 days a week and allow a cheat day (yes, this goes against the advice in It Starts With Food). One thing for sure, we will keep our sugar intake as low as possible. I want to continue to avoid processed foods and have more home cooked meals. I will bring back dairy, grains, and beans, as long as my body tolerates them well. I think my overall goal is to use ingredients that my great great grandmother would have used and get 95% of my food from the perimeter of the grocery store.

I limping and dragging myself to the finish line. It’s much to close to quit, but too far away to last another day without a meal plan to see me through to the end. Annoyingly, my energy is nonexistent and so is my food creativity. So many eggs. Too much chicken. Need variety. Though I don’t crave or need any off limit foods, I do crave a wider selection of options.

I have to be honest, the lack of energy is almost enough for me to throw in the towel. I don’t think the Whole30 caused it, but I sure hoped it would help! The last few days I have had to sneak naps whenever both kids were napping. I am exhausted! I also have two little girls so maybe the only cure is to wait for them to grow up!

This was the WOD (workout of the day) at CrossFit today. It was the first workout I have Rx-ed!!! (Done as prescribed, no modifications) This has been a goal of mine and it feels awesome to finally cross it off my list!

Three weeks is as good as one month, right? Just kidding, I have come this far, no reason to skip out now! I have stopped writing everyday because eating this way has become so normal that I think about my Whole30 a lot less than I did the first few weeks. What I have thought about though, is what I am going to do when this is all over. I am tempted to try the zone diet as I bring back grains into my diet, to help me learn a good balance of carbs to veggies to protein. I have decided that I don’t want to cut out grains and dairy forever, but I will keep a lot of the Whole30 meals I have tried this month in my dinner rotation. Most of the meals I have had this month have been delicious! I can’t get enough of the breakfast salad I blogged about here.

The biggest surprise of this whole experience, is how eating this way is not torture! It has definitely been tough at times, but I expected it to be a lot worse. Simply put, Whole30 does not equal suffering.

Yesterday’s excitement was tainted by my almost 9 month old going on a nursing strike. In addition, she woke up long before the sun screaming to be fed, something I thought she had finally outgrown. I nursed my oldest until she was 14 months old and hoped to do the same for my baby. I am a little worried that they change in my diet could be a factor, but I am still eating plenty of calories, just better calories so I can’t logically see how that would be a problem. Part of me wonders if I am selfish for putting so much time and energy into my diet and exercise lately and that it is somehow affecting nursing.

Truthfully, I am unsure if the problem is on my end or hers. All day I have been pumping and chugging water and extra calories and trying to coax a distracted and uninterested baby into nursing for more than a few seconds. There is a small part of me that is tempted to just give in and give up nursing, to call nine months enough and allow myself to be done. It has been three years since the last time I wasn’t pregnant or nursing and that freedom is very alluring. But a bigger part of me has cried the few times I have had to supplement over the last few days.

When I sat down to write this post, I only planned to write about my meal plan, but then my nursing struggle just slipped out. It feels good to let it out. If anyone out there has any experience or advice on the matter, I am all ears.

Now that that is out of the way, here are all the dinners I have planned for this week:

Dinners:

Monday – Fend for yourself (I ended up having a breakfast salad and everyone else had grilled cheese)

Today is the halfway point! It is all downhill from here now, right?? In other fabulous news, I decided to go try on a few pairs of jeans and shorts in my closet that I either, haven’t fit in since before my second baby, Eloise, or I haven’t been wearing much because of the heat, and miracle of miracles, they all fit! And by fit, I mean, I didn’t have to squeeze myself into them! The jeans slipped on easily and buttoned without having to hold my breath or wear a pair of spanx! I feel like I am back to the weight I was before I had Eloise. I wore one of the jeans last month and had to squeeze uncomfortably into them, now they feel great, possibly even a little loose! Such a good feeling!